The present invention relates generally to rotor wheels in turbine engines and specifically to the retention of blades within slots provided in the rotor wheel.
In certain turbine engine configurations, individual blades are loaded into substantially axially-oriented slots or grooves formed in the rotor wheel. The blades must be retained in the slots or grooves so as to prevent any radial or axial movement of the blades during operation of the turbine. Dovetail mountings on the blades and complimentary dovetail slots in the wheel serve to prevent radial movement. There have been devised various techniques for preventing blade movement in the axial direction, some of which involve “staking” of the ends of the blade dovetails after insertion into the complimentary slots. For the rotor wheel or disc in the last stage of certain compressors, however there is little or no access to the front or back of the blade dovetail, rendering the staking method unfeasible.
There remains a need, therefore, for a blade retention mechanism that is easy to install and remove, and that provides effective and reliable blade retention in the axial direction.